Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Facebook alarms privacy advocates again

Six weeks after Facebook launched a controversial advertising program that tracked its members around the Internet, the Palo Alto company is quietly testing a new system that slips links to its mobile software onto smart-phones on the T-Mobile USA network without the permission of the devices' owners.

BlackBerry owners can hide the blue-and-white Facebook icon, but they can not delete it.

Brandee Barker, director of corporate communications for Facebook, said users still must choose to use the mobile application and that no personal information will be at risk. She said Facebook will not share its members' data with T-Mobile or Research in Motion, which makes BlackBerry devices. In addition, she said, neither T-Mobile nor Research in Motion is sharing the information they gather about a person's location or the contacts stored on his or her BlackBerry with Facebook.

Kara Walker, a spokeswoman for T-Mobile, said the icon, which began appearing Dec. 19 on several BlackBerry models, is designed to take users to a mobile Web site where they will be asked to agree to download the full Facebook application. "It's not an application until you choose to use it," she said. (However, the icon, at least on one reporter's phone, did not always work.)

The experiment alarmed privacy advocates who have been worried about online marketing practices for months. In November, the Center for Digital Democracy and U.S. PIRG shared their concerns with the Federal Trade Commission shortly before Facebook launched Beacon, an advertising system that tracked Facebook members on sites like eBay and Netflix and then broadcast their actions in news feeds to their friends.

More than 50,000 Facebook users signed a petition against Beacon demanding the opportunity to opt out of the advertising system. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg subsequently apologized to members and said the company would change the service.

Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said the distribution of the icon shows Facebook's management still has a lot to learn. "It illustrates a basic problem over at Facebook, which is their need to fatten their bank account is confounding their need to protect the privacy of their members," he said.

It is unclear whether Facebook will make any money from the distribution of the icon.

Both T-Mobile and Facebook are interested in persuading people to make greater use of mobile applications.

Barker said Facebook does not have a direct relationship with T-Mobile, which is dealing with Research in Motion. Barker said the partnership between Research in Motion and Facebook dates back to October, when the companies announced that an application to push information from Facebook to BlackBerry devices would be rolled out starting Oct. 24, first to T-Mobile customers.